Peter Wright claimed his first ProTour title of 2020 by defeating Gerwyn Price 8-6 in Saturday’s Players Championship 5 final in Wigan, while Steve Lennon hit a nine-darter.
The World Champion averaged over 100 in all but one of his matches on his way to claiming the £10,000 top prize in this year’s fifth Players Championship event, sealing the win with a 170 finish.
In the second round, Wright missed a dart at double 20 to break his own broadcast record average, but he still managed an astonishing 120.2 average in a whitewash victory over Adrian Gray.
Scotland’s World Cup star then saw off Scott Mitchell, Ryan Joyce and Glen Durrant before edging a high contest semi-final with Devon Petersen.
In a day filled with ton-plus averages, the final was no different, with both players averaging over 109 across the 14 legs.
“it’s just the start. I’m enjoying these darts and we’ve got something in the pipeline to improve them further.” said a confident Wright.
“Who knows what I can win this year? I just take it a leg at a time and that’s all you can do.
“As World Champion, I’ve always got a target on my back but I feel like I’m giving some of the other players the belief that they too can win anything.”
The first 13 legs of the contest went with throw before Wright produces the biggest finish of them all to not only break the Price throw, but claim the Scot’s first ProTour title of 2020, continuing a fantastic start to the year.
Earlier in the day World Cup runner-up, Lennon, hit a nine-dart finish in the fourth leg of his Last 32 clash with Kai Fan Leung, marking the tenth perfect leg across the PDC this year, before agonisingly missing match darts against Gerwyn Price in the semi-finals.
The wait for a first title of the year continues for Michael van Gerwen as the world number one was dumped out by Christian Bunse in the Last 32, while Gary Anderson was eliminated at the same stage by Ryan Joyce.
Players Championship Five
Saturday February 22
Last 16
Rob Cross 6-4 Christian Bunse
Devon Petersen 6-2 Dimitri Van den Bergh
Peter Wright 6-3 Ryan Joyce
Glen Durrant 6-3 Vincent van der Voort
Steve Lennon 6-1 Benito van de Pas
Gabriel Clemens 6-5 Nathan Aspinall
Gerwyn Price 6-3 Jamie Lewis
William O’Connor 6-5 Brendan Dolan
Quarter-Finals
Devon Petersen 6-5 Rob Cross
Peter Wright 6-1 Glen Durrant
Steve Lennon 6-2 Gabriel Clemens
Gerwyn Price 6-2 William O’Connor
Semi-Finals
Peter Wright 7-5 Devon Petersen
Gerwyn Price 7-6 Steve Lennon
Final
Peter Wright 8-6 Gerwyn Price
